Eeyou/Eenou community voices on ‘doing’ Miyupimaatisiiun (wellness) planning: An occupational transactional perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article is the second of ‘twin’ papers centering community participation in Miyupimaatisiuun (wellness) planning within the Eeyou Istchee (Northern Québec James Bay Cree) context. We present and discuss the results of a community-based study that took place over the course of 4 years (2016-2020). Data were collected through 13 visits to four communities, 22 individual conversation-based interviews with local members of Miyupimaatisiiun (wellness) Committees (MC), 50 hours of community-based activity observations, informal brief interviews, and documents related to MC planning activities. Data analysis was grounded in an occupational transactional perspective encompassing local and regional contexts with which MC members coordinate their intentions and actions to plan for community miyupimaatisiiun. Our first manuscript (Lévesque et al., 2022) presented study results on the meaning of community participation in wellness planning. This second paper predominantly addresses the processes of ‘doing’ Miyupimaatisiiun Committee participation. Three themes are presented and discussed: Connecting local entities, Positioning the local Miyupimatisiiun Committee, and Wearing multiple hats. These results help describe and understand community participation as occupational transaction with the effects of colonization and with coloniality, that is, settler forms of knowledge and ways of doing, as participants bridge community sectors and collectivize local entity resources and efforts toward community miyupimaatisiiun. Ways forward for local Cree governance and regional entities hoping to better support community engagement and mobilization for wellness planning, are proposed. Though research results will be of interest to a broad audience, particular relevance to occupational science is emphasized, in terms of occupational transactionalism and coloniality.